Three or four times a year, my husband and I travel across country for tradeshows or conferences that are important to our company. I don’t like to fly so we often drive. Of course the down side of travelling by car is that someone has to drive while the other person is free to work on the computer. We’d both like to be on the computer during working hours since we are work-a-holics. Besides, this is business travel, NOT a vacation.
We wondered if travelling by train would solve the problem, so in August we set out for Chicago via Amtrak.
I booked the trip online at Amtrak.com. Of course I discovered immediately that you can’t get from Oklahoma to Chicago without travelling to Texas. We’ve taken the Heartland Flyer to Fort Worth before (a 4 hour trip) so we didn’t mind too much especially since it was the only option if we were going to travel by train.
A private railroad car is not an acquired taste. One takes to it immediately. — Eleanor Robson Belmont (1879-1979)
Having traveled in the coach cars before, I booked a sleepette for this overnight trip. It was the only sleeper car option available at the time I booked the trip (about 3 weeks before our trip). The price was comparable to the price of flying considering that meals are included if you purchase sleeper car tickets. If you compared the cost to travelling by car, it is about the same considering the productivity of both of us working as well as the overnight stay being covered in the cost of train ticket.
Our home in Oklahoma City is a good 1/2 mile from the train station, but we didn’t consider it a problem to walk across town at 7:30 in the morning lugging our bags with us. It seemed like a great opportunity for a little extra exercise. I underestimated the effort. Especially when you consider that we were packed for a week. Even then, our baggage was fairly light because although the Texas Flyer to Chicago allows checked baggage, the Heartland Flyer does not. We had to pack for a week’s trip with the restriction of carry on luggage. We each had a computer bag, a gym bag and a small suitcase. (We resigned ourselves to washing clothes at the hotel).
Boarding the Texas Flyer and locating our “sleepette” was easy. The tiny little room made me giggle at the thought of how creative we would have to be to accomodate our laptops, cords, computer bags, and our feet!
The bathroom was located just two doors down and contained a small shower. Our “room” was stocked with towels, pillows, and a bottled water for each of us.
It was early afternoon and we were anxious to plug in since we ran our batteries out on the 4 hour trip down. We flipped open the tray tables and hooked up the computers with an agreement of whose feet would be placed where and which computer would be plugged in to the single outlet first.
The lady from the dining car stopped by to schedule our dinner reservation. We scheduled for 5:00 pm and found ourselves free to work without much interruption for the next 2 1/2 hours.
Alan and I both have “air cards” from Sprint that allow us to connect to the Internet from wherever we can get a signal. The signal was strong near Fort Worth, but we found ourselves without service within 2 hours. Since a lot of my work was documentation that didn’t require an Internet connection, I was not affected much. Alan was logging into a remote server for most of his work, so the loss of service was a pretty big interruption for him.
Dinner time arrived and we headed to the dining car. We had to pass through another sleeper car to get there. I know my children would think crossing between cars is fun. It’s a bit of a balancing act, and just part of the adventure.
People travelling by coach enter from the opposite side as the sleeper car passengers and preference is given to the sleepers since the meal is included in their fare. There is limited space so you will be seated with other passengers. If you love meeting people, this is one of the best parts of the whole trip. The food was about like airline meals in first class. The conversation was always a surprise. You never knew who you would be seated with or what stories they would have to tell. We were fortunate to sit with mostly seasoned train travellers who had taken the train all over the country. We learned which routes to take and the personal stories that lead to each person’s decision to take this particular trip.
When it was time to sleep, we lowered the top bunk and I climbed up. I was tired and the bed was not too bad. The seats below slid together to make up Alan’s bed and he reported that it was fairly comfortable as well and we tried to fall asleep.
The train broke down. There was a problem with a compressor that controlled the brakes so of course we had to stop in the middle of nowhere Texas headed towards the Arkansas border.
We had learned a few years ago on our Heartland Flyer trip that freight trains have priority on the tracks over passenger trains. There was a Union Pacific engine that would be available to rescue us, but we would have to wait a few hours. We would arrive in Chicago much later than planned, and I felt sympathy for those in coach.
Other than the delay for the repair and the lack of Internet connection as we travelled through Arkansas and Illinois, the rest of the trip was easy. We arrived at Union Station in the early evening instead of early afternoon.
Again, we fooled ourselves into thinking the 2 mile hike to our hotel from Union Station, while loaded with luggage, would be no major effort. I was panting heavily when the hotel clerk asked for my name at check in.
For our return trip, I logged on to Amtrak to see if a bigger room was available. The website told me it was, but I’d have to purchase it at the train. As we boarded the Texas Flyer for the return, I requested the larger room. We paid the extra $100 and were escorted to the room which was twice the size of the sleepette. The bathroom and shower were in the room. For the extra foot room, bigger bed, and private bath, it was worth the extra money.
Our return trip was very similar to the first without the breakdown in the middle of the night. It was a very worthwhile experience. I would only recommend this type of travel for business under the following conditions:
- Your schedule has flexibility. Delays are pretty typical (1 to 2 hours). I think our breakdown delay was out of the ordinary, but considering that passenger trains take a back seat to freight using the rails, you should allow a couple of hours extra on an overnight trip.
- If you intend to work, bring all of your work to your laptop so that you don’t depend on the Internet. Even if you have an “air card,” the service will be inconsistent.
- You can accomodate the extra day or two for just travel. The length of the trip is similar to driving, so if your schedule allows you to drive, then taking the train is comparable.
We’re looking forward to our next trip. Maybe we’ll see you there.